OK, So You Have Skills
by dk-joy
Summary: Heero finds out how complicated lock-picking can be when he tries to get Duo out of some really tough cuffs.
1. We Have a Problem

Disclaimer: I, sadly, don't own Gundam Wing no matter how much I want to. The bishounen aren't mine sigh . I love them anyway!

Warnings: OOCness, hurt Duo, blood, aftereffects of torture, language, implied shounen ai, mean people…it's not too bad, but leave if you don't like blood…yeah…

OK, So You Have Skills…

Chapter 1

They thrust Heero into the large, dark cell, quickly closing the door behind him. Heero looked at his cuffs and shrugged. He dislocated his thumbs and pulled his hands out easily. He sat down and looked around at the blank walls. In a particularly shadowy area of the cell, he thought he saw a flash of violet. Something seemed familiar…

He walked up to the area cautiously, but relaxed when he saw it was only Duo. The other pilot was chained to the wall. Not really chained…his restraints had no room for movement. The large metal cuffs had been welded to the metal wall. His arms were at right angles to his body and his ankles were shoulder-width apart. No wonder he hadn't picked the locks already. Duo's usual black clothes looked…darker in some spots.

The many jagged cuts in the pilot's clothes indicated he'd been beaten. Duo raised his head and Heero saw a flash of pain in the boy's eyes, quickly replaced by his normal, happy expression. His hair, usually braided, fell loosely about his face and shoulders.

"Hey, Heero! Haven't seen you in…" Duo scrunched his face in concentration, thinking hard.

"It's been a week since you botched your mission." Heero said without emotion.

Duo's eyes got wider. "Really? Is that all?" he said, then mumbled, "seemed much longer…Anyway…could you help me out of these?" Duo asked, tossing his head at the cuffs on his arms.

"Why don't you just slip out?" Heero asked, wanting to sigh. Duo's eyes got dark and narrowed.

"I can't. Trust me, I can't." he said in a low, almost growling voice. Heero blinked at his friend's uncharacteristic behavior. He sighed. Part of his mission was to rescue Duo, the baka. They needed him for a stealth mission. Badly. So he might as well help Duo sooner rather than later. He sighed again and inspected the restraints.

He knew at first glance that this would be harder than he'd thought. Normally he'd just blow up a lock this tough, but they needed Duo alive and whole, so that wouldn't work. He was starting to think of other ways to get the braided boy out, like ripping the cuffs off of the wall, when he heard Duo address him in his normal, irritatingly cheerful voice.

He wanted to laugh at Heero's confused look when he saw the complicated lock. To anyone else, Heero's expression would look the same. But Duo had been around the "Perfect Soldier" enough to know what he was thinking. That slight widening of his eyes had been surprise. The slight frown was discarding an idea. The slow shift from leg to leg was thinking. The poor guy was confused! Trying to keep the laughter out of his voice (and not succeeding very well), Duo said,

"I've got some picks by my left ear. Wanna give it a shot?" To Duo's horror and surprise, the "Perfect Soldier" said,

"I can't pick this. I don't think anyone can."

Duo sighed. "Get the picks and I'll walk you through it."

Heero paused, considering. Then he reached over and got the picks out of Duo's hair.

"OK, Heero. Take the longest, skinniest one and stick it in the third hole to the right…" Duo gave him precise instructions, but it still took the pilots two hours just to pick the lock on his left hand. When the lock finally openned with a faint click, they both sighed. Heero stepped back and started to turn away.

"Hold on! You're not done yet!" Duo sputtered. Heero turned around, eyes narrowed.

"You do the rest, hotshot." Heero said quietly.

Duo sighed. "I will once you get me out of that one," he said, using his head to indicate his left hand.

"I did…" Heero said, slightly bewildered.

"Open it." Duo said simply.

TBC…

Author's Note: Thanks to my boyfriend for encouraging me to post this fic. I've had a lot of it written for a while now. I think it was the first GW fic I started.

Please review. Mean reviewers suck. I never write mean reviews, so I would prefer it if people who hate this would be nice and either don't say anything or be constructive in their criticism. A good way to help someone be a better writer is to encourage them. That's what I try to do and I appreciate it when others do the same.


	2. The Nature of the Problem

Disclaimer: I, sadly, don't own Gundam Wing no matter how much I want to. The bishounen aren't mine sigh . I love them anyway!

Warnings: OOCness, hurt Duo, blood, aftereffects of torture, language, implied shounen ai, mean people…it's not too bad, but leave if you don't like blood…yeah…

OK, So You Have Skills…

Chapter 2

Heero walked up to his friend, curious. Did Duo just want to be babied or what? Surely he could just pull his arm out of the cuff now that it was unlocked, right? He opened it and stopped, staring.

"Thought they would be nice to a Gundam Pilot?" Duo asked, voice dripping with sarcasm and…self-hatred? Heero just stared at the metal spike that held his friend's arm to the wall, driven through the wrist.

"They beat me 'til I passed out and I woke up when they were pushing my wrists onto the spikes. I tried not to struggle, but…" Heero just nodded, looking at the bloody mess. Then he grasped Duo's arm and yanked it off of the spike before Duo even had a chance to tense up. Duo cursed then breathed, sighing in contentment. Heero turned away and started walking, (probably pondering the cruelty of the prison system…). Then he heard what sounded like a sob from Duo.

Duo looked at his arm in disbelief. He couldn't move it. At all. It was just there. Limp. He'd flexed his hand and arm muscles over the past week, trying to keep them limber in case he got a chance to escape. But his arm wouldn't move. He felt tears of frustration well up in his eyes and a sob escaped him before he could stop it. He couldn't help it. The guards would be making their rounds in the next few hours (they only checked once or twice a day, since the locks were so tough and no one had ever even got out of one of them, even with help). Duo had regained his composure by the time Heero turned around.

Heero looked at Duo, whose eyes were wide in terror and suspiciously bright. He glanced at the boy's arm, hanging uselessly by his side.

"Let me help you," he said quietly, grabbing Duo's arm and massaging the muscles. He was rewarded almost immediately by a slight spasm and a sigh of relief by Duo. He kept rubbing Duo's arm until the boy winced every time he pressed, but still didn't stop. He finally did when the braided boy pulled his arm away and said,

"Thank you, Heero. Can you hand me my picks, please?" in a subdued (for Duo) voice.

Heero bent down, picked up the lock picks and handed them to the thief silently. Duo put them in his mouth and grabbed them one at a time. He inserted them, twisted them, pulled them, jerked them, growled at them, and finally the lock came undone. Heero stared silently. It had taken Duo 10 minutes to pick the lock. With a wounded arm. When it had taken him two hours.

TBC…

Author's Note: Thanks to my boyfriend for encouraging me to post this fic. I've had a lot of it written for a while now. I think it was the first GW fic I started.

Please review. Mean reviewers suck. I never write mean reviews, so I would prefer it if people who hate this would be nice and either don't say anything or be constructive in their criticism. A good way to help someone be a better writer is to encourage them. That's what I try to do and I appreciate it when others do the same.

This is the quickest I've updated any of my fics. Mostly cause I like this fic and you guys seem to as well. Thanks!


	3. And Now for the Legs

Disclaimer: I, sadly, don't own Gundam Wing no matter how much I want to. The bishounen aren't mine sigh . I love them anyway!

Warnings: OOCness, hurt Duo, blood, aftereffects of torture, language, implied shounen ai, mean people…it's not too bad, but leave if you don't like blood…yeah…

OK, So You Have Skills… Chapter 3: And Now for the Legs… 

Duo breathed deep, then jerked his arm away from the wall. Now the violet-eyed boy rubbed his right arm, getting the feeling back. When he was done, he gathered his hair together, finger-combing the tangles. He braided his hair quickly and then stopped.

"Shit! I don't have a hair band!" Duo cursed again. "Heero hold this a second, would ya?"

Heero grabbed the end of Duo's braid, silent as usual. Duo wanted to laugh at the thought. This wasn't a normal Heero silence – this was an "I'm impressed despite myself" silence. The braided boy ripped a strip of cloth from his ruined black shirt (they'd pay for that!) and tied off the end of his braid. He thanked Heero again, who barely nodded, and then stretched, luxuriating in the snap and pop of his back as he twisted from side to side.

"And now for my legs!" He said cheerfully, though feeling exactly the opposite about the prospect. The leg restraints were simpler, but he'd still need about ten minutes to get them both. The holes in his wrists were now bleeding freely, the wounds having re-opened when his wrists were ripped off of the spikes in the wall. He was finally starting to feel tired from the blood loss and lack of food and sleep. He bit his lip, debating whether or not he should take a rest, then decided to go on, figuring that Heero wouldn't appreciate the delay. He sighed at Heero's inhuman silence and concentration on the mission and got to work.

Heero was impressed despite himself. The normally talkative Duo was only talking when necessary. But more than that, he wasn't complaining and he was doing things that Heero could never hope to do. How the Hell had he known how to pick that lock? The baka couldn't even see the lock while in that position. But he'd known exactly what to do. He decided to stop worrying about it. He watched the boy stretch, twisting from side to side. Then Duo stopped, thought a second and bent down to unlock his leg restraints.

His body was bent completely in half at the waist and his braid dragged the floor to the side of his head. His face was red from the blood rushing to his head and Heero heard Duo mumble something. It sounded like he said something about inhuman bastards and maybe that was a "mission accepted" said in a mocking tone (the remarks go over Heero's head).

Heero watched with concern as blood oozed down Duo's hands and onto the floor. His hands were shaking and he was starting to breathe hard. Heero was about to tell Duo to take a break when Duo snapped up and took a ragged breathe, then gingerly pulled his legs away from the wall. He made a typical comment, then slid down. Duo's hollow cheeks and dull eyes as he looked up worried Heero.

TBC…

Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long and making it so short – I've got a lot to work on as usual and I also have other fics to update….so much to do. Sorry again and please review!


	4. Just Two Friends Getting Out of Prison

Disclaimer: I, sadly, don't own Gundam Wing no matter how much I want to. The bishounen aren't mine sigh . I love them anyway!

Warnings: OOCness, hurt Duo, blood, aftereffects of torture, language, implied shounen ai, mean people…it's not too bad, but leave if you don't like blood…yeah…

OK, So You Have Skills… Chapter 4: Just Two Friends Getting Out of Prison 

"Woo-hoo! The God of Death is outta there!" he exclaimed. Then he sunk to the floor, exhausted.

"Can I take a huff wheeze rest?" he asked the Perfect Soldier anxiously.

"Sure, Duo" he heard Heero say.

"What?" he said, head snapping up, then "what'd you do with the real Heero?"

"Take a break, baka. You're no use if you can't do your mission."

"Oh! I see!" Duo said aloud, but thought: _Jerk! Can't you give someone a break because they deserve it and they're your friend?_

He sighed at his wishful thinking. Heero giving him a break cause he was his friend would happen sooner than Heero complimenting him for a job well-done (and that would never happen!). Still…

"Hey, Heero. How did you like my quick escape? Pretty good, huh?" (He loved messing with the guy. He was way too serious.)

"Yes. It was."

_Huh?_ Duo choked. "OK! I'm getting freaked out here. Who the fuck are you?" he said in his Shinigami voice, getting to his feet. "You're a very poor imitation of Heero, man. HE wouldn't help me this much. So who are you? You've gotta be from OZ, right?"

Silence.

"Now you're getting the hang of it!"

"What are you talking about, Duo? Are you…is something…what's wrong with you?" Heero asked, totally confused. He'd thought he was being nice. Why would Duo be mad?

"Man, you are so OOC it's not even funny!"

"…OOC?"

"Out of character. There's no way Heero would let me rest and then compliment me. You can't be him."

(Was that teasing he heard in Duo's voice? Certainly not.)

"Do you need proof that I'm…are you…"

"Hey, hey, man. Sorry just a joke. Don't wanna make you nervous or anything." Duo gave a slightly nervous look at Heero's clenched fists. "Don't kill me or anything…" _Oh, shit! Maybe it isn't him! He hasn't threatened to kill me yet! Plus, he's acting like a…friend._

Duo asked casually, perhaps too casually, "So…how are the others?"

"Quatre is in space with Trowa and Wufei is on Earth with Relena."

_Boy, did he drop a lot of names there. Is he trying to prove he really is Heero or trying to trick me into thinking he's Heero? Aaahhh! My head hurts!_

Heero watched Duo sit down heavily, holding his head in bloody hands. He looked…confused. Why? Didn't he know that he considered him a…probably not. Time to tell him.

"Hey Duo." Duo looked up warily. "I…you and me…I'd like you to know that I consider you a friend. My best friend."

Duo visibly relaxed and flashed a pleased smile.

"You're my best friend, too, buddy! Next to Deathscythe, of course!"

They both laughed loud and long at the joke, causing the guards to come and see what was wrong…

TBC?…

Author's Note: Do people want me to continue? I have some more stuff, but I wrote it originally as another fic. And it's not completely done yet. But I do have more, so if you want me to continue, please review!

Sorry for the shortness! If I post more, it will start with them getting out of the cell, and this was a good place to stop.


	5. And They're Off!

Disclaimer: I, sadly, don't own Gundam Wing no matter how much I want to. The bishounen aren't mine sigh . I love them anyway!

Warnings: OOCness, hurt Duo, blood, after-effects of torture, language, implied shounen ai, mean people…it's not too bad, but leave if you don't like blood…yeah…

OK, So You Have Skills… Chapter 5: And They're Off! 

**A/N: I can't make up my mind if this happened immediately after the last chapter or years later…probably later. I think I'm gonna write the rest of it as snippets of their lives and it will eventually turn into actual shounen ai.**

They broke out of jail easily, with Duo picking locks or blowing up doors and Heero knocking guards out. The two ex-Gundam pilots ran through the base, leaving destruction, but not death, in their wake.

"I'm gettin' too old for this shit!" Duo yelled after dodging a barrage of gunfire and throwing a canister of tear gas at the guards.

"You're only 18." Heero said in exasperation.

"Yeah, but…" They both dodged more bullets, barely pausing in the conversation. "I've been doing this kind of stuff" a pause while they dodge, "for more than ten years! I need a break!"

"You couldn't have been a Gundam pilot that long!" Heero said, knocking two guards out with one punch.

"Of course not!" Duo replied in a condescending tone, running and peering over his shoulder to look at Heero. "But I've been stealing, breaking into and out of bases and dodging bullets since before my parents…" They both stopped after a look at the door in front of them.

"What the…" Duo cursed quietly.

"Gundanium" Heero said, confirming Duo's guess.

"They couldn't make it easy on us…"

"Of course not, Duo. Would you really…"

"Nope, buddy. I wouldn't have it any other way."

Duo picked through the bag of treats he'd grabbed from the armory. TNT, C-4… "Ah-ha! This should work!" He pulled out a small keypad and slammed it onto the door to make it stick.

"Duo that's…"

"Yeah. I know. Get away quickly. The third door on the right should be far enough away."

Heero nodded, silent, and ran back where they had come from, taking the fifth door to the left instead. Duo chuckled at that.

Duo stretched like he was about to run a race, which he was. He was gonna enter the code to arm the explosives and run like his life depended on it. Which it did. After his stretches, he put his back to the door and called, "Heero, it's gonna blow. Anyone on the other side of this door is gonna fry!" Then he turned around, punched the code, and started off at a dead run in under two seconds. He wasn't fast enough.

Heero listened for the beep that said it was armed and quickly covered his head. He could still hear Duo, though.

"Shit! He took too long!" Heero peered into the hall in time to see the door blow while Duo was still only 100 feet away. A chunk of the door was ripped off and slammed into Duo's back, knocking the braided boy down and shielding him from the worst of the blast.

Heero ducked back into the room as the blast reached his door and shrapnel was flung like knives where he'd been standing a moment before. When the hall cleared, he ran to where Duo was and shoved the door off of his friend.

"Baka! I could've run faster than that!"

Duo smiled weakly, "yeah, but the door would've missed you and you'd be dead meat."

"Are you telling me you planned…"

"No! Just a happy accident!" Duo said with only slighlty less cheer than usual.

TBC… 

Author's Note: Yeah, Duo would probably bleed to death in REAL life, but this isn't and he's a Gundam boy – he'll get over it! (In response to reviews saying that he would have died from the stakes through his wrists.)

Please review! I don't have anymore written, but…I could think of some things. I have other ideas that I could incorporate into this one… (I know it's short – forgive me!)


	6. Catlike

Warnings and Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, nor will I. Ever. cries … Oh. But neither will you, so I guess it's OK… we can whine about it together!

This fic contains shounen ai (1+2), an instance or two of bad language, violence, blood, understandable OOCness from Heero,

This story happens at some point after the last chapter… don't make me get any more specific than that. It isn't right after or very soon after, which becomes obvious as you read the story…

Chapter 6: Cat-like

When Heero woke up, he felt a weight on his chest. It wasn't just the regeneration unit. It was something else. Something… not physical. He hesitated to call it emotional, but…

He opened his eyes slowly, not knowing exactly where he was. He knew he was in a hospital, but he wasn't sure if he'd been captured by the enemy or if the mission had been successful and he was among friends. He looked around and spotted Wufei sitting, asleep, in a chair nearby. He guessed that the mission was at least semi-successful, since Wufei wasn't badly injured. He just looked a little bruised.

Heero took stock of his own injuries. He knew he must have taken a serious hit to the chest for them to be using a regen unit. His arms and legs just felt stiff and sore from exertion. What he didn't know was the status of the other pilots. Maybe that was what the problem was.

He tried to remember what had happened; when was he injured? He could recall a sudden flash of pain before blacking out, but that was it. But he had a bad feeling. He had to know what happened. Not just to him, but to the others. So he found himself talking to Wufei's sleeping form.

"Wufei. Wufei? Can you hear me? Are you awake?" He paused, hoping for a response. "Hey! Come on. I…" Wufei stirred slightly, blinking sleepily and glancing (automatically, it seemed), at Heero's bed. When he saw that Heero was awake and staring at him, his mouth dropped open.

"Yuy? My God! You're awake?" Wufei whispered, as if afraid to break an illusion.

"…shouldn't I be?" Heero asked, his sense of unease growing.

"Well… we didn't think… that is… we weren't sure…" Wufei couldn't seem to complete his thoughts.

"Weren't sure of what? Didn't think what?" Heero asked, trying to calm Wufei with his voice and hopefully get a coherent answer out of the man.

"We weren't sure you would ever wake up. You or Duo." The Chinese boy whispered.

"… Duo?" Heero asked.

"He's in a coma. Just like you… were."

"…how long. How long have we…" Heero's mouth was suddenly very dry.

"A week. Not long, considering your wound. But like I said, the doctors weren't sure…"

"What about Duo?" Heero asked. "How is he? What… could you tell me everything? I don't remember…"

"Sure, Heero. I'll tell you everything. You deserve to know." And Wufei told him this story…

"Well… we were on that top secret mission when we were suddenly overwhelmed with enemy gunfire. Quatre got taken out pretty quickly and Trowa went down protecting him. They're all right now – relatively minor wounds, but they bled a lot.

"Anyway, it was just the three of us left – you, me and … Duo. We were doing OK until they seemed to multiply – they must have gotten reinforcements. A few minutes later, my head was grazed by a bullet. You glanced at me for a second as I ducked back behind cover, but it was long enough for someone to get a good shot at you. You took a shotgun blast to the chest and went down immediately. You were covered in blood. I thought for sure you were a goner. Duo must have thought the same thing.

"Duo just… it was like the war all over again, but worse. He really earned the name Shinigami then. When he saw that you were down, he just went crazy. That's the only way I can describe it. He darted out from behind cover and took out five in no time flat. I don't know how he did it – I only heard one shot. But he kept on, doing crazy things.

"It was like he knew where everyone was and who was a threat when. He would anticipate when someone was aiming at him and get them before they could get him. It was insane. But after a while, he couldn't keep it up. The first shot caught him just below his left knee. He went down, blood all over the place, but he didn't let up. I don't know how he managed it. He was sitting there on the ground shooting everyone in sight. He twisted around to catch someone sighting him through their scope, taking out the guy's eye. Then he turned back around to toss a grenade at a group that was getting too close to each other before throwing a knife at a guy who was making a run for cover.

"He was either not himself or he was closer to his true self than I've ever seen. It was just… so hard-core. Before I saw it with my own eyes, I never would have thought even you could do something like that. And it all looked so effortless. But then a second shot came, skimming along your ribs.

"Duo cried out like they'd hit him. He doubled over and I saw tears falling down his cheeks. I think he noticed that you didn't even flinch. I think he had just been stalling until you woke up. But then he realized that you might really be dead and… he just lost all of his fighting spirit. He didn't move, so the rebels took advantage of the situation. I've never seen someone bleed that much and still live.

"They shot a hole through his right leg. His left shoulder took a couple. Someone threw a knife and caught him in the lower right ribs. He narrowly dodged a few headshots. He brought up his arms to protect his chest and caught a few more; some were deflected, but some went through and pierced his chest.

"I'd been trying to help, shooting as many as I could see, but my vision was blurry from a concussion and blood kept getting into my eyes. I barely managed to cover his back; he didn't take any injuries there. Finally, Quatre and Trowa regained consciousness. The firefight had moved closer to us, so they were in a prime spot: behind the enemy. They started taking them out and soon we'd cleared the room.

"When we looked at you and Duo we thought that you were dead for sure, but both of your hearts were still beating. We rushed you guys to the hospital. They were able to give you and Duo enough blood transfusions on the way to keep your hearts beating. When we got here, they immediately started to work on you; they refused to work on Duo at first. If Quatre hadn't threatened them with losing their jobs, they would have just let Duo die. No one thought he would survive.

"You were bad enough, but he was…"

"That's enough, Wufei." Heero said, pale and worried looking.

"Sorry. But you need to know… he's not likely to…"

"I KNOW, WUFEI!" Heero screamed. Wufei jumped, startled. Heero seemed to calm himself down. "Come here, Wufei."

Wufei was frozen in his seat, scared of the icy tone of Heero's voice. "…"

"COME HERE, Wufei. You won't like it if I come over there."

"No." Wufei said, standing up and bracing for a fight when Heero removed the regen unit and staggered out of bed, looking determined. Wufei planted his feet squarely, promising himself that he would knock Heero out as soon as possible and put him back to bed so he could rest. He just hoped he could manage it. He was totally unprepared for what happened next.

Heero lunged and… hugged him tightly. Wufei froze, wondering when he'd entered the twilight zone. To his utter horror, he felt wetness on the front of his shirt and looked down to see tears soaking his shirt. Heero's tears. It was just too weird.

"… I don't like this…" Wufei said quietly.

"Told ya." Heero deadpanned.

Wufei was surprised again, but didn't say anything. He knew what kind of stress the other boy was under. "…you like him, don't you?" he asked Heero.

Heero only nodded. Wufei nodded to himself, then bent down, putting his arms around Heero's back before turning to the side. Heero stiffened. "What are you doing?" He asked, his tone promising death.

"I'm bringing you to him. You aren't strong enough yet to walk there on your own." Wufei replied simply. Heero nodded again and relaxed, allowing the Chinese boy to pick him up and carry him to Duo's room down the hall.

At Wufei's request, he opened the door. Machines whizzed and pumps moved and saline and blood were dripping. The place looked like a repository for medical equipment. In the middle of it all was a bed. Duo was on it, looking tiny and insignificant. And dead.

Heero cried out and almost leaped out of Wufei's arms to get to the braided boy. Wufei put him down quickly, but carefully. Heero moved fast for someone who had just gotten out of a coma, but he was the 'Perfect Soldier,' after all.

He immediately checked the other boy's pulse and sighed when he felt it. Faint but steady. Wufei walked toward him, but Heero told him to give him some time alone. Wufei left without replying to the request. He didn't need to. Heero had already forgotten that anyone else but Duo existed in the world.

When Wufei came back a while later, Heero was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking down at the pale braided boy, his hand resting on his chest as if he needed the constant reminder that Duo was alive. Wufei called to Heero softly, startling the normally alert boy.

"You need to sleep, Heero." Heero shook his head.

"I need to be here. With him."

"That's why we're moving you both to another room. Come here and see if you think it is adequate."

Quatre must have pulled some major strings – the room wasn't a normal hospital room. It was a suite. There was a huge bed with plenty of room on the sides for medical equipment. There was another bedroom next door and a couple of bathrooms, along with a sitting room. Heero's mouth must have dropped open, because Wufei kind of snickered, causing Heero to close his mouth with a snap and say, in the most snotty voice he could muster, "it will serve. It needs something, though…"

Wufei snickered again before agreeing. "Yes. Quite. Another person, perhaps?" He snapped his fingers and the door opened, revealing several people wheeling Duo's bed in, along with several medical machines. And Heero's regeneration unit.

They gently put Duo on the bed before arranging all of the equipment and bowing deeply to the two ex-Gundam pilots. Heero was impressed despite himself. But what he really wanted was to go to sleep. With Duo alive and breathing at his side. He started to climb into the massive bed, but Wufei was talking to him.

"What was that?" He asked.

"I asked if you'd known how Duo was. The real Duo. You know, the one who took out those guys after seeing you taken down."

"Once or twice." Heero replied, thinking back to a certain set of handcuffs and a lucky scrape with a Gundanium door.

Wufei nodded, satisfied before he said, "sleep well," leaving and closing the door behind him.

When Wufei, Quatre, and Trowa came in later to check on their comrades, they found Duo laying diagonally on the bed. Heero was curled around his head like a cat, his hands clutching the boy's braid while his lips rested against Duo's forehead. They shut the door and left quietly.

When Duo woke up a few hours later, he took in his surroundings. He brought a hand up to his face and was surprised when his hand bumped into someone else's head. He shifted slightly, but stopped moving when he saw Heero, his eyes closed gently in slumber and his mouth a precious little pout. Duo maneuvered, moving his head enough that he could gently press his lips to the other boy's before he fell into a deep, healing sleep.

When the nurses checked later, they saw the boys curled up around each other, lips gently touching and soft smiles lighting up their faces.

TBC?

Author's Note: Please review! I love you guys!

I came up with the idea for this chapter a long time ago (ditto for all the chapters before this LOL). But it was just now that I decided to actually write it out.

Be happy that I'm writing now, 'cause later in the semester I'll be too busy writing an appellate brief about whether or not you need a severability clause in a non-competition agreement to sever parts of the agreement that don't comply with the statute, but still keep the parts that comply. And I'll also have to argue about whether or not "specifying" a parish means you need to actually name the parish or if "the parishes where x does business" is specific enough. Argh! Why can't legislators just be clear about this kind of stuff so lawyers don't have to argue about it! Sorry for the whining… it just sucks to be in law school sometimes.


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